PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26778, 22 May 1948, Page 2

PASSING NOTES

Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. —Cowper: Retirement. Lord Beveridge says that, as nobody in New Zealand works at the weekend, nobody enjoys himself—he long ago found out that happiness was created by activity. The general, or a general view is that to get rid of work, to have an endless rest, this would be happiness: Some years ago a shrewd observer said that one of the ideals in this country was to retire and play bowls. All living beings aim at happiness, but too commonly pleasure is held to be happiness. Quite a mistake. A certain amount of pleasure is helpful to happiness, but is not vital to it. Too many men, as Aristotle makes clear in the “Ethics," confuse “ doing well" with “ living well ” in the highest sense. To pursue happines is never to overtake it. It must be attained as a result of some effort and of a congenial life and circumstances. Aristotle also says happiness is a certain exercise of the soul towards virtue. No doubt this is what Lord Beveridge means—he is a classical scholar. The “ virtue ” may be that of the artisan, the farmer, the artist, the scientist, the houseworker. To spend leisure in sheer inertia or indulgence is to debase life and life’s opportunity. To work, to construct, to think, to study—these things bring happiness. Continued excitation, or over-stimulus of any kind for pleasure brings degeneracy. This is sound sense, but only those will heed it who have the power to heed it. If good advice could bring happiness, the mille.nium of human felicity would not be far away. But of course unremitting work for the means of life is stultifying. Where woman has never a soul to save. —Hood: “Song of the Shirt." The cablegrams say that in North Africa the Arabs are combing the sands for all kinds of treasures left there as the sequelae of war. But finding they have lost many men by contact with mines, they have decided to place the women in the van. If this is true, women are being brought to the front in a new way amongst those professing the faith of Islam. But the new way is only an assertion of the old servitude imposed on women by Oriental usage. Yet the common European belief expressed in Hood’s line above that Mohammedanism does not allot souls to women is entirely erroneous. The Koran (xxxiii: 35) promises the joys of heaven to women as well as to men. “The men and women who resign themselves to God, and the believing men and the believing women ... for them hath God prepared forgiveness and an abundant reward." But a doctrinal statement cannot outweigh existing practice. Polygamy has been a practice from the first in Islam, though it seems the Sacred Law limits the wives to four at any one time. King Ibn Saud is said to have, married a hundred already. Polygamy degrades woman. It is to the credit of Christianity that amongst its best practical results it has given to marriage, and thence to women, a status of the highest respect. Unde redit nemo (whence none;, returns).—Catullus. I am somewhat puzzled at being asked if there is any proof of immortality. Really it means, I suppose, continued existence in some form after the decease of the body. If there is a soul it lives on or is dissipated like the body, or is absorbed again into the universal soul from which it emanated. Plato attempted to prove immortality once by the doctrine of innate Ideas, which being born in us point to a previous existence that might be recaptured by a process of anamnesis or recollection; and again made an attempt by the analogy of opposites—e.g.. cold following heat, night day, waking sleep, and so on. Addison was impressed by this, for in his Cato he has: Plato thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, this longing for immortality? Sir Walter Raleigh concluded his fierce poem “ The Lie ” with the line, “No stab thy soul can kill.” But speculation is not proof. In the Old Testament no proof is offered, though there are faint adumbrations of a life beyond. The New Testament, of course, offers the historical foundations of Christianity where faith is paramount over the modern demand for demonstration. The Egyptian Book of the Dead and .mummification indicate belief Some modern cults have claimed to prove existence after death and have received adherence from some men of eminence and have a numerous following among the less eminent. I have seen and read a good deal of one cult’s proofs, and I remain as before —unconvinced. Yet I have a personal conviction, gained in another way. But this would not convince my questioner. Wherever the Norse went they were dominant. —E. Huntington: “ The Character of Races.” A question has been put arising out of my statement of inheritance of high intelligence proceeding now mainly through the smaller families. The question is the old one of environment and its influence. In the wider field it runs thus: Do the innate qualities of a race determine its distribution, or do the total environmental conditions select certain types and so determine their distribution? Our white ancestors came to New Zealand from the north —chiefly Great Britain —and this is the result of an innate urge. But wait. Why did not other branches of the white race in Southern Europe do likewise? The answer seems to be that those in the north had been affected by the regions they had long lived in. For example, the Norse settled widely because of the harsh conditions in Norway for agriculture and because they were forced to take to the sea. The Sicilians have been farmers since the earliest knowledge of them, and further they have suffered from malaria. Such is the line of- (reasoning pursued by those who lay stress on environment. Also the intelligence of negroes is on the average below that of the whites in tests, yet the negroes in four northern States did better in tests than whites in four southern States, northern conditions being better than southern. But the important fact is that the white race has had initiative, curiosity, persistency, self-assertiveness and the adventurous will. I realise all the influence of environment, but still think the inner germ is the determinant —i.e., the genetic factor. Arabs and Jews are akin. Are their differences caused by environment? Was the Jew not competent long before the diaspora or scattering abroad? Did he not begin to spread out in the Roman Empire before the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.? Certainly; he began to be internationally minded even before Caesar went to Britain.

Humour is odd, grotesque, and wild. Only by affectation spoiled; ’Tis' never by invention got; Men have it when they know it not. —Dean Swift. This letter shows that Swift was right: Dear “ Civis,"—The following anecdotes of Sir Boyle Roche are culled from "A Century of Anecdote ” (1760 to 1860) by John Timbs: “ I wish, Mr Speaker, this motion at the bottom of the bottomless pit.” ■■ England, it must be allowed, is the Mother Country, and, therefore, I advise them (England and Ireland) to live in filial affection together, like sisters as they are and ought to be.” A question of smuggling practices in the Shannon being under consideration. “ I would,’ said Sir Boyle, “ have two frigates stationed on the opposite points of the mouth of the river, and there they should remain fixed with strict orders not to stir; and so, by cruising and cruising about, they would be able to intercept everything that should attempt to pass between.” ! Mr Vandeleur said, “ However that might be, the tax on leather would be severely felt by the bare-footed peasantry of Ireland.” To which Sir Boyle Roche, replied that " this could be easily remedied by making the underleathers of wood.” I thank the writer, a well-known citizen. Clearly the S-R bond, stimulus and response, is a theory with some merits. I gave the stimulus some weeks ago by a mention of Roche—the

responses must have given pleasure to readers. Roche is inimitable because he was spontaneous—his mistakes are more enlivening than most other men’s exactitudes. And there is an old dictum somewhere in Horace—dulce est desipere in loco (“ Sweet it is to play the fool in the right place ”). Methinks Roche had a twinkle in his eye. To conclude, I must thank 11 Oturehua ” for his friteresting letter—perhaps the subject can be dealt with elsewhere. Civis.